The Trans-Hellas expedition - An exercise in Martian expedition planning

The Hellas Basis is an impact-formed deep basin in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars. We undertook a planning exercise for a human Trans-Hellas expedition that would traverse the basin from West to East. The authors of this paper divided into three teams. The Science Group was set the task of defining science goals for a Trans-Hellas Crossing. The Logistics Group was set the task of considering what transport and accommodation the team would use during the expedition and the Resources Group was set the task of defining resource use and allocation during the traverse. We present the main conclusions of this short study and show that the Hellas Basin should be considered a high priority science target for future human expeditions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of Martian expedition planning using a small team with diverse expertise.